I had plenty of reasons to hate myself, and the girl just reminded me of one.

She was at the slave market. Now, I’m not feeling mad because she’s there. She was an egoist afterall. No, I'm mad because the slave market still exists.

“Boy. Search for a place that we can stay at, make it discreet.” Let’s just get this over with.

In a blink of an eye, I was behind the girl. It only took the guard five seconds to feel my presence. They said something, but I didn’t hear them. My mind was too focused on the man in front of me.

The sleazy, greasy, bald bastard in front of me was no threat, he’d be dead in one strike, but his death wouldn’t mean anything. Maybe I’ll make an example out of him. I’ll send each slaver a piece of him with my signature, maybe then-

“For the last time, get off my employer's sight.” I was pushed backwards by another mercenary. He was a… ninja? Yea, full black gear, with a red belt to top it off.

“Look, we both know you’re screwed here.” I grabbed my long hair, and started putting it in a manbun, all the while staring at him with a smug look. “Remind you of anyone?”

“How… dare you take his image! You do not know what he did. Stop before you get killed.” After all these years, this same look makes them cower in fear.

“Take his image? How can I steal something from myself?” He’s surprisingly composed. I killed every ninja I considered a threat, so that probably included any master he was under.

He slowly backed away, not even noticing the slave master yelling at him.

“I will give your clan one order. It should be simple enough to follow. Destroy slavery by the end of the decade. Don’t worry, you will have plenty of allies. It is the only way your culture can redeem itself. You can guess what I’ll do if you don’t follow the order.” He was clearly holding back. I could tell he wanted to kill me, I could see it in his eyes.

“You… dare!” It was really aggravating y’know? To see me strike fear into him, and have him refuse.

“I do dare, and you know why I can. Here, give me your arm.” He slowly, but surely brought up his palm, but tried getting away after I pulled out a knife. “Hey, how will they know it was me if they can’t see who sent it.”

Everyone else was confused or disgusted. He didn’t have the strength to pull away… so he screamed, only for a second, as I used my magic to shut him up. You see, if I used enough small explosions, I could move objects around without hurting them. It was a much harder version of telepathy, but I wasn’t not enough of a genius to learn two magic techniques.

“There. They should understand it came from me ok?” I smiled at him while he clutched the sign engraved onto his palm. “If the slave master’s not dead by the time I look back at you, I might just have to send them your arm… personally.”

After all that, I turned back to the girl.

“Blair, what were you thinking!?” I stared right into her soul, and her soul stared back.

“Liberating the slaves through legal methods… and not by whatever you’re doing.” Oh great, of course she’d say that.

“Buying slaves is in no way liberating them. You’re just encouraging the slave traders to steal more people. You can only liberate them by killing the slave masters.”

“We’ll just have to buy them over and over then! I can afford anything, peasant.”

“Enough!” I grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up into the air.

“G-Guard!” Silvia would’ve helped her normally, but she had a new source of power.

“Do you think you’re the only one with magical talent here?”

***

I was still waiting. I had asked the guard a question, and she was just standing there.

“Well… I’m a technically undead being who feasts on blood and-”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I know what a vampire is.”

“How-. Nevermind. Since you know about us, you should know about all our traits?” Vampires are incredibly secretive, so she’d be surprised at me casually saying that.

“Yep.” They burned in the sunlight, were young forever, and were weak to garlic. They were also rich most of the time.

“Well… you know how I didn’t burn in the sunlight? That’s because I can negate all of my weaknesses by drinking blood from a person with enough magical power.”

“You bit me didn’t you?”

“Huh?! How did you? You’re stupidly smart for a mercenary. Why can’t you be some stupid grunt!” I’m not smart. I just have great intuition.

“Am I a vampire now?”

“No. I’m a half vampire, so I have to bite someone twice in one day to turn them.”

That’s terribly convenient. I thought

“Hold on. Is that why you were loyal to the girl?” The girl had incredible talent, even if it wasn’t used properly. Being able to freeze that amount of land was an achievement for a beginner, even if it made her go unconscious. Her blood would be stupidly potent.

“...Yes.”

“So you’re trying to be defiant to the noble-”

“No. I was hungry. I could stop drinking her blood though. Your blood isn’t as good, but it could do.” I sighed, already tired of her inaction.

“Why didn’t you wake up the girl? Would she have punished you?” Silvia nodded. “Very well. You will no longer drink her blood. She will never escape her illusion of grandeur if you don’t.”

“Since when did you know how to speak like that?” I always fluctuated between a fancy and normal accent. I never knew why.

“My wife was rich. Now come on, let’s head back.”

***

“How… dare you! You think you can do that to me? I will have my family annihilate you. You are but an insignificant bug. I control all of china! I’m the heir to the strongest nation the world has ever seen.”

“You know that your noble house is nothing compared to the council. Not only that, but you can’t do anything while you’re with me. Your ‘guard’ will make sure you don’t leave.” I finally let her go. I needed to kill her ego before she could start actually improving. Right now, she thinks she’s on top of the world.

I turned back to see the slaver’s head blown to bits. Guess he didn’t notice I was bluffing. I couldn’t afford to go to war with another order of assassins, especially annoying Japanese ones.

“See? My solutions work.” She scoffs again “You would run out of money eventually. At best, they’d have two to three months of freedom.”

Blair, in her infinite wisdom, tried interjecting before I finished. She was lucky that the boy returned, because I didn’t particularly like people who thought they could control when I speak.

“I found a place!” He smiled brightly at me, “Not only is it discrete, but it’s also cheap. Just the way you like it.” He pointed at me, which made me chuckle.

“Come on, I’m not that much of a cheapskate.” As we began following the boy, Blair got right behind me and pulled on my robe until I looked at her.

“Hey, I need to tell you something about Ethan. Keep walking so he doesn’t get suspicious of us.” She whispered, trying to not be heard by anyone else. “He’s not from here.”

“Ok? What does that have to do with-” She cut me off… I would’ve had to reprimand her if she was about to say something that wasn’t worth my time.

“No, not like that. I hired someone to read his memories. He’s a precursor.”

Wait… What?!